Exxar

For some reason, your datalink does not work.

Anyway, there are quite a few problems with your build, starting with the order you picked your powers. For a final build, that's not very important if you don't plan on exemplaring, but you still have some mistakes there. If you intend for your toon to level up according to this - it's baaad. You can still salvage it if you're at 12, but I'd recommend you switch to your alternate build and build it from scratch (we can have two builds now, you can switch between them at any arbiter).

Indomitable Will, Rise to the Challenge and Quick Recovery are the most important powers in WP, you MUST pick them as soon as they are available. Besides, QR is more effective than Stamina and doesn't have any prerequisites. Stamina is not necessary until late 20s, so you can postpone on Swift and Health in order to get other powers earlier. Clobber is your best single-target attack, take it as soon as possible. Any patron attacks mess you up with redraw, and they're quite skippable as you have both strong single-target and AoE capabilities. Summon Widow is pretty useless, and you'll be a bit squishy without Tough and Weave. Once you hit 32+, you do not need Bash if you take Hasten, and perhaps even if you don't.

Six-slotting attacks is only useful if you intend to use SOs, frankenslot the hell outta them, or if you have some specific sets in mind.

Here is a sample build that will get you to lvl 35:

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 34 Mutation Brute
Primary Power Set: War Mace
Secondary Power Set: Willpower
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Bash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: High Pain Tolerance -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Pulverize -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Jawbreaker -- Empty(A)
Level 6: Fast Healing -- Empty(A)
Level 8: Clobber -- Empty(A)
Level 10: Indomitable Will -- Empty(A)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- Empty(A)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Empty(A)
Level 16: Rise to the Challenge -- Empty(A)
Level 18: Whirling Mace -- Empty(A)
Level 20: Quick Recovery -- Empty(A)
Level 22: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 24: Mind Over Body -- Empty(A)
Level 26: Shatter -- Empty(A)
Level 28: Health -- Empty(A)
Level 30: Stamina -- Empty(A)
Level 32: Crowd Control -- Empty(A)
Level 35: Heightened Senses -- Empty(A)
Level 38: [Empty]
Level 41: [Empty]
Level 44: [Empty]
Level 47: [Empty]
Level 49: [Empty]
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Fury

If you don't mind traveling on temporary powers (Raptor Pack, Zero-G pack) until 30, you can get Stamina as soon at 22, you'll feel more comfortable running around without stopping and smashing stuff. I suggest you respec at 32 into something like this:

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 48 Mutation Brute
Primary Power Set: War Mace
Secondary Power Set: Willpower
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Pulverize -- Empty(A)
Level 1: High Pain Tolerance -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Jawbreaker -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Fast Healing -- Empty(A)
Level 6: Mind Over Body -- Empty(A)
Level 8: Clobber -- Empty(A)
Level 10: Indomitable Will -- Empty(A)
Level 12: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 14: Health -- Empty(A)
Level 16: Rise to the Challenge -- Empty(A)
Level 18: Whirling Mace -- Empty(A)
Level 20: Quick Recovery -- Empty(A)
Level 22: Stamina -- Empty(A)
Level 24: Combat Jumping -- Empty(A)
Level 26: Shatter -- Empty(A)
Level 28: Super Jump -- Empty(A)
Level 30: Hasten -- Empty(A)
Level 32: Crowd Control -- Empty(A)
Level 35: Heightened Senses -- Empty(A)
Level 38: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 41: Tough -- Empty(A)
Level 44: Weave -- Empty(A)
Level 47: Build Up -- Empty(A)
Level 49: Strength of Will -- Empty(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Fury

This has all the powers you need (if you prefer Build Up over Taunt), and you have them in an order that is good for exemplaring. Note that I took SoW only for muling the Steadfast +def IO. Slotting will depend on if you choose to go only with SOs, frankenslot IOs, or go to the max and set out yourself properly.

/Elec won't stand up to an AV with its defenses, even with Energize. The same goes for WP unless you hoard at least 10 mobs around the AV and keep them alive so they saturate your RttC.

Go with SR or EA. I'd always take SR, and depending on your build you may not even need Aid Self.

Slot for +hp and defense, and then add numina's and regenerative tissue for a bit of extra +regen. The rest of +regen will come as a side effect of your slotting. You should stuff in 5 kinetic combats and as many reactive armors in your res toggles as you can. You can also do some tweaks like putting 2 rectified reticles in build up for 1.88 S/L defense and such.

Here's an alternate build based on your power picks, although personally I'd make quite a different selection:

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

McStoned ST: Level 50 Mutation Brute
Primary Power Set: Stone Melee
Secondary Power Set: Willpower
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Stone Mallet -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(3), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(3), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), HO:Nucle(5)
Level 1: High Pain Tolerance -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(7), Numna-Heal/Rchg(7)
Level 2: Heavy Mallet -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(9), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(9), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11), HO:Nucle(11)
Level 4: Mind Over Body -- RctvArm-ResDam(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(13), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(13), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(15)
Level 6: Fast Healing -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(15), Numna-Heal/Rchg(17)
Level 8: Fault -- RzDz-Acc/Rchg(A), RzDz-Acc/Stun/Rchg(17), RzDz-Acc/EndRdx(19), RzDz-EndRdx/Stun(19), RzDz-Stun/Rng(21)
Level 10: Indomitable Will -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(21), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(23), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(43)
Level 12: Air Superiority -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(23), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(25), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(25), HO:Nucle(27)
Level 14: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 16: Rise to the Challenge -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(27), Numna-Heal/Rchg(29), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(46), Mrcl-Rcvry+(48), RgnTis-Regen+(50)
Level 18: Seismic Smash -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(29), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(31), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31), HO:Nucle(31)
Level 20: Quick Recovery -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(33), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(33)
Level 22: Health -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(33), Numna-Heal/Rchg(34)
Level 24: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%(A), EndMod-I(34), EndMod-I(34)
Level 26: Boxing -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(36), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(36), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36)
Level 28: Heightened Senses -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(37), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(37), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(43)
Level 30: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(37), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(39), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(39)
Level 32: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(39), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(40), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(43)
Level 35: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(40), RechRdx-I(40)
Level 38: Strength of Will -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A)
Level 41: Gloom -- Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(42), Dev'n-Dmg/EndRdx(42), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(46), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46)
Level 44: Darkest Night -- DisWord-ToHitDeb(A), DisWord-ToHitDeb/Rchg(45), DisWord-ToHitDeb/Rchg/EndRdx(45), EndRdx-I(45)
Level 47: Build Up -- Rec'dRet-ToHit(A), Rec'dRet-ToHit/Rchg(48), RechRdx-I(48)
Level 49: Fly -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(50), Zephyr-ResKB(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Fury
------------
Set Bonus Totals:

• 28.6% Defense(Smashing)
• 28.6% Defense(Lethal)
• 4.56% Defense(Fire)
• 4.56% Defense(Cold)
• 9.56% Defense(Energy)
• 9.56% Defense(Negative)
• 3% Defense(Psionic)
• 17.7% Defense(Melee)
• 8.63% Defense(Ranged)
• 6.13% Defense(AoE)
• 6% Enhancement(Heal)
• 2% Enhancement(Stun)
• 27% Enhancement(Accuracy)
• 22.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
• 5% FlySpeed
• 337.3 HP (22.5%) HitPoints
• 5% JumpHeight
• 5% JumpSpeed
• Knockback (Mag -4)
• Knockup (Mag -4)
• MezResist(Confused) 1.65%
• MezResist(Immobilize) 16%
• 4% (0.07 End/sec) Recovery
• 90% (5.63 HP/sec) Regeneration
• 5% RunSpeed

It would be much easier if you posted a datalink or the export chunk for that build so we can load it in Mids.

Well then, I'd take the single target blast. I can see it as being more useful than the AoE one... You probably won't be using it much because of redraw in a middle of a fight, and it's a better runner stopper than the AoE.

Why don't you go Mu? It has an evil-looking red lightning blast, an evil-looking red AoE immob perfect for Burn, and an evil-looking red lightning AoE.

Perma-Energize cannot be achieved without severely gimping your build. You can get way more survivability and damage output by getting it to a comfortable non-perma recharge rate where it's still a great end tool and healing aid. For example, on my near perma-hastened build (with 20% defense to all) I have it on a 35 sec timer.

Inv only has one click power and it ain't up as often as other clickies, so you won't have much problem with redraw. Shield Defense has two clickies - Shield Charge and mez protection, you'll use one of them every 40 seconds or so as a fight opener (SC) and the other on autocast each two minutes to 80ish seconds, depending on your build (mez protection). If you reeeeealy hate redraw that might be a problem, but if you don't have strong issues with it you should be fine.

Both Inv and SD can be souped up with sets to be extremely tough, and WM has enough varied powers that you can get lots of S/L/E/N defense out of it, as well as hit points. But your biggest problem will be end usage, WM is rather heavy on it and those two secondaries don't do much to help. Maintaining a steady attack chain on a souped up SD build will drain you of end for in 30-40 seconds if you use Hasten according to my recent calculations, and that includes Miracle, Numina and Perf. Shifter. You can build for +end and end recovery, but then you'll have a hard time making your toon really tough. Accolades help tremendously there, though.

That problem can easily be avoided by taking Willpower, which is on par with Inv and SD regarding survivability. In addition to not having to worry about end, it also has no clickies (unless you take and use the tier 9 semi-godmode, which is entirely skippable).

I only mentioned slotting for survivability till now. The other route which is frequently taken, +recharge, is not of as great use to WM as to other sets like SS or SM. Sure, it will quicken your secondary clickies, but WM already has quite manageable recharge times. So if you go for survivability, you can tank TFs without problems and still have a quite nice damage output.

If you aren't aiming for a tough endgame IO build, you should have equal fun with any of the above mentioned sets, with WP probably being a bit ahead because of QR. Each will have it's own unique weaknesses.

Yeah, I'll see that one when i get my fire/fire brute to 50 ^^

I can offer you another perspective on SM and its AoE potential, as I have a stone/electric/mu brute specced for AoE.

Tremor does have a long animation time, but it's still a good power. If you can stand the animation of Knockout Blow, then you can stand that of Tremor as well. Just be careful and don't perform it while on a sliver of health. It does decent damage and the knockdown is great, but that still ain't enough on its own in terms of AoE dps. With the patron immob and AoE however, your AoE damage output will be quite good. SS will have better, but SS is the king of AoE damage.

So if you want to go the AoE way, you can do so with SM and you'll be quite good, but you need the patron powers. I find it very enjoyable and powerful. Bottom line - try it, you can always respec out of it.

SS is usually considered to perform better at AoE damage and SM at single target damage. SM has absolutely mad single target damage while SS is a bit lackluster there, you'll often find yourself waiting for Knockout Blow and just clicking the other attacks to keep the fury when pounding lone targets. SM has better mitigation because of tremor (it's absolutely great, you can use it to disperse alphas very effectively), it also has better chances of doing KB on its single target attacks.

Speaking as a SM/ELA user, you'll feel lacking in the AoE arena without pool powers, but quite good with those. I suggest you take Mu Mastery so you can make full use of your end drain which is mostly provided by Power Surge, but you need Ball Lightning or Electric Fences to finish the job. You need that additional layer of mitigation, but it probably won't be required if Conserve Power gets switched. If you won't be going for large global recharge and/or Hasten, you won't have a complete single target attack chain without Stone Fist.

I'd also wager that SM performes better with little global recharge than SS, but this is just an assumption.

Regarding endurance, Stamina + Power Sink take care of that superbly.

Actually, I have no problem with fury when doing that, even in the extreme case when the mobs are completely locked down. I usually just let them pound at me for a few seconds while they surround me so that my AoEs catch the most of them, and that spikes up my fury quite nicely. After that, I maintain it (or get it full if it wasn't already) with my attacks and that's enough.

If you like cones and don't mind jumping in and out of spawns, Soul Mastery is the way to go. Soul Tentacles don't give knockback protection so you still have that wonderful form of mitigation from Foot Stomp, and even do more damage than Dark Obliteration. And you have Gloom in there as well for ST damage.

But for people that don't like cones Mu is definitively a better way to go for the use of patron Immob.

I have a nearly permahastened stone/elec/mu brute (would be permahasted if I used purples), slotted for 21% defense in addition to +rech. Haven't had enough space for Aid Self after I took Tough and Weave. I survive by getting the mobs to surround me and then fire off Power Sink, Electric Shackles and Ball Lightning. That leaves them at 0 end and greatly reduces incoming damage. I continue setting off those powers as soon as they are ready, and that keeps their end low. I can use Fault for additional mitigation (dissipating particulary nasty alphas etc), but since you're going claws...

To the point: going Mu gives you an additional layer of mitigation (Power Sink by itself ain't enough), and you can slot for about 20% defense besides going all-out for +rech, which means you could hit 30% without that much +rech, probably more. And you won't miss Aid Self if you don't take it.

Leveling up, you'll have a great time until the 30s, when you'll feel REALLY squishy until you take Tough. Mitigation from your primary will be your best friend then.

It is also a pretty efficient damage mitigation tool when combined with another end draining power. I'm using it on my stone/elec/mu brute, and 3 SOs woth of endmod slotting in Power Sink combined with Ball Lightning (not slotted for endmod) gets the mobs end down to 0.

So are we having another downtime right now which was, let me guess, only announced in-game?

Yeah, an in-game announcement is of little use when you can't access the game and search for info to determine if it's a planned downtime or something unexpected

I would have expected a forum announcement for additional downtime but haven't found one... so this just [censored] me off properly as I was so eager for some MA goodness :/

Apologies if this is not the best place for this, but is anyone else unable to log in and getting the firewall/login server down error?

Well I be damned. The moment i posted my message, the update server became reachable